in a bit of a pickle

I’m in a bit of a pickle......not sure where that adage comes from, because I don’t feel like I am surrounded by watery green walls, but anyway. (if the point of the saying is that you are in something you can’t get out of, then why did they pick pickle and not squash or potato? I’m just sayin...)

I’ll get on with it. A little over a week ago, I decided to ‘clean’ my mac laptop. I wiped down the keys and screen, made sure the outside was fingerprint free. Not quite satisfied, I decided that the underneath of the keys needed cleaning, as well. Don’t ask how I came to this- it’s just who I am. I am going to be honest here, and if ya love me, you’ll stick by me after this admission-- I get a thrill out of cleaning odd things. Like hairbrushes. It pleases me so to pull out the hair and remove the gunk from the brush and restore it to slightly less pristine condition it was in before it came to meet my mop. Cleaning my cell phone brings a smile to my face, too. It’s sad really....I mean I have no problem sitting amongst the muck and mess that finds it’s way into my living room, but I will put my children on hold and demand some quiet time while I am cleaning that all important hair brush.

Anyway....so I was peeling the keys off gently and cleaning what I found underneath and having a grand ole’ time-- really, it makes me so happy. When I was pleased with my results, I proceeded to put the keys back where they belong. And all was going swimmingly (another one I’m not sure I understand, but since I love how it sounds, I’m gonna use it), until I got to the ‘Shift’ key. That darn, teach-me-a-lesson, very necessary ‘Shift’ key I have come to call ‘aww poop’. It would not go back on. I was patient and gentle, and begging the little button to please pop back on before my husband walked through the door and gave me one of those ‘Oh, Shannon’ looks. After many deep breaths and desperate maneuvering, I realized that it was not going to go back on, at least not by my hand. So, I did what I had to do. ‘Honey’, I called. No more was needed-- he knows me enough to know the tone, so the look when he walked through our bedroom door was not great. I told him what I had done, how I had tried to fix it, and asked for his help. So he tried-- all the while mumbling about how next time, maybe I should ask him before I attempt to clean my computer-- and he failed. And since then, two of his friends- one a mr. fix it, the other a tech junkie- and also failed. So, my only option is to learn to use the Shift key on the right (which I never knew was there until this catastrophe), or to take my computer into the apple store and face the 20-something apple genius who is far more hip and knowing than I, and explain what I have done. Enter the pickle.....